Sunday, September 18, 2011

Discretion v. Valor

Call it maturity. I spent a wonderful weekend in Door County with good friends. We all did our own thing and sat together for evening meals. I had time to wander the shore and to paddle on Friday and Saturday. The Friday paddle was pretty ordinary with a cruise along the Green Bay shore. On Saturday, there was a SE wind blowing about 10, so I headed up to Cave Park on the East coast of the peninsula. Because of the angle of the land and the wind building to 15 mph, 3-4 foot rollers, some breaking, were forming off the limestone formations. The made wonderful sounds as they crashed into the walls.

I had my helmet on and my camera was inches from my left hand...and I was alone. I so badly wanted to capture some images to share here....but:  I knew if I went over without another paddler to throw me a tow rope that I would be dashed onto the wall before I could get back into my boat (assuming I hadn't rolled up). So, I recorded the images in my mind, spun around atop a few waves and enjoyed a little surf-like action going back. No images here, wonderful ones in my head.

Paddle safe...
DS

2 comments:

JohnB said...

good judgment.

DaveO said...

Good situational analysis. Rather than 'one size fits all' rules I much prefer running through a risk benefit analysis in my head and then deciding. I will confess that during two days on our Sauna Islands trip earlier this month I violated the 'dress for immersion' rule. Flat calm with a favorable forecast, three experienced companions, 80F air temp, and trolling the shore line at 2 knots caused me to store the smelly neoprene stashed on the back deck. Use your heads out there folks.